Staple pins are used to bind various materials together, including generally thin and penetrable material such as sheets of paper. Staple pins consist of U-shaped wires including opposing arms that are forcibly driven through and inwardly clinched beneath the stapled material by a staple gun.
Staple pins are removed from stapled material by various devices. One of the most frequently used devices is a hand-held staple remover which generally includes hand grips and two pivoting jaws, each jaw with tapered claw-like projections (hereinafter referred to as "claws") on their working ends. The claws are operated in a pincer-like fashion. In use, the claws of the staple removers are positioned beneath the crown or uppermost exposed portion of the staple pin and pressure is applied to the grips. Such pressure causes the tapered claws of the jaws to move towards each other beneath the staple pin which, in turn, displaces the pin in an upward direction. As the staple pin is upwardly displaced, the staple arms bend outwardly and disengage the stapled material.
While the known staple removers provide a means to remove staple pins, there are problems associated with their use. For example, during removal one or both of the staple pin arms often remains clinched. This not only interferes with the easy removal of the staple pins but additionally may result in snagging or tearing of the stapled material. In such instances, the clinched staple pins are usually manually disengaged from the stapled material by the user's finger. This is both time consuming and potentially painful if fingernails break or fingers are pricked by the staple pins. Moreover, clinched staple pins increase the likelihood that the pins will fall onto the floor or into copiers where damage may ensue.
In addition to removal problems, disengaged staple pins frequently become caught in the staple removers. In such instances, the staple pins must again be manipulated by fingers to effectuate their removal from the staple removers. This also is time consuming and potentially injurious to the user.
Conventional staple pin removers are also generally adapted only for staple pin removal. Consequently, in a typical office or file room where string is frequently used, additional tools are required for cutting the string or other filamentary material.
Various staple remover devices have been introduced in an effort to eliminate or decrease the above-described problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,491 discloses a staple remover which expands a staple pin as it is removed from an object and to further retain the staple pin once it is removed from the object. This is accomplished by the inclusion of protrusions on the outer surface of each leg of the claw members of the remover. The protrusions cause the arms of the staple pin to withdraw from the stapled material and the ends of the withdrawn arms to snap into place against the inner surfaces of the claw legs. The disengaged staple pins are then manually removed by the user.
Other known staple remover devices include mechanisms for retaining disengaged staples (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,974,999 and 4,054,263) or mechanisms for removing broken or partially removed staples (U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,272). While these, along with the above '491 patent, may, in some instances, eliminate the problems caused by the partial disengagement of staple pins from stapled material, or the problems caused by staple pins falling to the floor, they are often impractical to use or difficult to manufacture because of their complicated designs.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a staple pin remover which uniformly and completely disengages staple pins from stapled material without snagging the staple pin or tearing the stapled material.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a staple pin remover which removes stubborn or partially disengaged staple pins.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a staple pin remover which facilitates removal of the disengaged staple pins from the remover itself.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a staple pin remover which can also cut string or other filamentary material.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a staple pin remover which is easier and more expeditious to use than prior devices.